Harry Potter and the Southern Sky
by Cassie Lee
Summary: Having lived as a Muggle for the last two years Harry returns to England, his friends and hopefully his old life. He soon discovers that life after Voldemort and Hogwarts isn’t so easy.


**Title:**Harry Potter and the Southern Sky (Prologue)

**Author Name: **Moppus**Rating: **PG-13**Spoilers:** PS/SS, CoS, PoA, GoF, OotP, HBP, QTTA.

**Genre:** General, Action/Adventure

**Era:** Post Hogwarts Years**Main Character(s):** Harry**Ship(s):** Harry/Ginny, Hermione?**Summary:** Having lived as a Muggle for the last two years Harry returns to England, his friends and hopefully his old life. He soon discovers that life after Voldemort and Hogwarts isn't so easy.**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.**Author's Notes: **The idea for this story has been floating around in my head for a while and after trying to write the beginning of this five times, this was the product, which my girlfriend (and beta) has convinced me to post before I can change it again. I promise the first chapter will not be re-written as many times as this and will hopefully be up soon. R/R, all feedback welcome. -Moppus

**Harry Potter and the Southern Sky**

_Once upon a time... about 1980 in fact, a small boy was born to two loving parents, James and Lily Potter. There wasn't anything extraordinary about this boy, he had ten fingers and ten toes, he had two emerald green eyes that reflected his mothers and he already had tufts of black hair sticking up in several directions which promised to be just like his father's. The fact that he was a Wizard was not extraordinary to his parents, having only graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry a few years ago themselves._

_This boy also had many loving 'Uncles' who liked to go under the names of Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot. This may have been a little more unusual if they had not really been called Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black, but they were, and they doted on the small boy like any other loving family would. He was showered with toys of both the Magical and Muggle variety, from Baby's First Broomstick, to Bertie Bott's teething ring, to an innocent toy aeroplane. A lot of these gifts could be attributed to Sirius who had been so very proud to be declared Harry's godfather and had inherited a rather large sum of money from his favourite Uncle, Alphard._

_And so, for the first year of his life, young Harry Potter lived in a place called Godric's Hollow and was a very happy baby boy indeed. It was after this first year, however, that things began to go awry._

_You see, before his birth, a prophecy had been made regarding young Harry and a certain Dark Lord, which quickly put the lives of Harry and his family at much risk, more than they had already been in during this time of war. James Potter asked his closest friend, better known as Padfoot, to be their Secret Keeper so that the Potter family could perform the Fidelius Charm (An immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or Secret-Keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find -- unless, of course, the Secret-Keeper chooses to divulge it) and live safely and happily protected from the dark and evil Lord Voldemort._

_This may have even worked if not for Padfoot's suggestion to use him as a decoy and use Wormtail as their Secret Keeper instead._

_And the rest, as they say, is history. Wormtail betrayed his friends in the worst possible way, informing Lord Voldemort of their location and ruining young Harry's life forever. His parents were murdered, his godfather sent to the horrible wizarding prison of Azkaban accused of their murder and betrayal, and he was marked forever with a scar that would be a symbol of hope in the Wizarding World for years to come. Although for Harry, all it would later be, was a continual reminder of his mother's sacrifice to save him. He was then sent to live with his Muggle (non-magical) relatives in the town of Little Whinging in Surrey and forced to spend the next ten years of his life knowing that there had to be more to life than being a slave to his Magic hating Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon and cousin Dudley._

_After his eleventh birthday however, when he re-entered the magical world and his life once more changed forever, he caught himself thinking on many an unfortunate occasion (as he watched the world collapse around him, his classmates injured or killed and his godfather slain unfairly), "Maybe it would have been easier if I had just stayed a Muggle..."_

_And as the month of June closed in the year of 1998, that's just what Harry Potter, saviour of the Magical World, set off to find out..._

"Next please," shouted the young immigration officer, looking up from her computer. "Hello sir, your passport and relevant paperwork please," she said as a young man approached her desk, "thank you." She took the passport offered to her and checked all the routine information, just as she had for the man before him. "Happy birthday Mr Potter," she smiled as she added his information into the computer, noticing the clock tick over to midnight. An hour left of her shift, it was about time too.

"Thanks," smiled Harry Potter in return, his legendary lightening bolt scar coming into sight, as he ran his hand through his hair tiredly.

"Well this all seems to be in order," the young officer said, handing back his passport, "Welcome back to England Mr Potter."

Harry smiled at her again as he picked up his bag, "Thanks, have a nice night."

He made his way through to customs, hearing the call of "Next please!" behind him as he went, making it through customs with no problems other than a glare from a grumpy old officer. He then made his way through the gate into the arrivals lounge, looking for any signs of his greeting party as he went.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted him. Remus Lupin, his father's old school-friend and his own ex-mentor, standing alone next to an ugly potted plant at the edge of the hundreds of grouped people in the terminal.

"Prof-… Remus!" called Harry as he fought his way through the throbbing crowd of travellers, trolleys and screaming children. '_How can there possibly be this many people here at midnight?' _Harry thought as he dodged a particularly angry looking child, '_I swear there weren't this many people on my plane.'_

"Harry!" Remus smiled in a fatherly manner at him as he spotted Harry coming towards him, and motioned him away from the crowd where the angry child now seemed to be throwing his shoes at his despairing mother, as she tried to calm him down. "How was your flight?" he asked, pulling him in to a greeting hug.

"Oh, you know, the usual, the movies were boring, the food tasted like boiled cardboard…" Harry replied, hugging his old mentor back, grinning, and knowing that as a wizard, Remus probably didn't know what the 'usual' was. "I'm just glad I wasn't sitting near that kid," he added, nodding towards the angry child who had somehow obtained more shoes and had considerably good aim for a boy his age. "I hope this hasn't been too much trouble," he said, looking away from the child, lest he attract the menace's attention, and back to his old friend.

"None at all," Lupin replied, also pulling his eyes from the slightly disturbing scene. "Though the plane's delay didn't _help_ our plans," he conceded as he turned to walk out of the airport.

"We'll just have to Apparate there instead I suppose," said Harry, picking up his bag once more while glancing at his watch anxiously. "I don't know if it was a good idea coming back Remus, not after how I left things with everyone."

"Don't be too concerned Harry," Remus patted Harry on the back and smiled at him again in his fatherly like way. "After everything you have been through it is understandable that you had to get away. I'm sure they'll all just be delighted to have you back."

"... Are you sure?" Harry didn't look so convinced.

"Well Kreacher might need some convincing, but I'm sure Dobby will be ecstatic."

Harry laughed shortly. The eccentric House-Elf named Dobby had aligned himself to Harry soon after Headmaster Dumbledore's death. Harry had quickly assigned Dobby as the second Elf for the Order of the Phoenix's Headquarters as Kreacher was quite useless... as well as at least partly responsible for Sirius Black's death. It also prevented Dobby from stalking Harry for the next year and kept the original House-Elf in line.

But Harry's humour was short lived and he soon stopped to frown once more. "So they weren't all angry at me for disappearing like that?" he asked, looking worried, and much younger than he had a moment ago.

Lupin laughed, "Sometimes I forget how young you still are Harry. You're only 19 and already you've been through so much."

"20 actually," Harry replied, raising an eyebrow.

"What? Really?" asked Remus, looking momentarily confused.

Harry nodded solemnly, "Yeah, I've been 20 for… about 15 minutes now," he said quite seriously.

Remus glared at him then glanced down at his watch, "Oh… so you have, sorry Harry, it's been one of those weeks, I didn't even realise you were due today until Hedwig started attacking me this evening." He shook his head, and noticing the concerned look that was still in Harry's eyes, added, "They are going to be happy to see you, I promise." Remus picked up Harry's bag and readied his wand before glancing back at Harry, "I'd watch out for Ginny though," and with that Remus disapparated.

"I thought he said they weren't angry with me," muttered Harry, as he too disapparated.

Harry kept his eyes closed for a moment after Apparating. He never had got used the sensation of his body been pulled through space and time. Well... maybe not time, but it was still a disturbing sensation. The other reason he had for keeping his eyes closed was just as understandable, if not more so, if only in his mind.

His last year at Hogwarts and been a very trying one for Harry and his friends and they had not left the school undamaged. The graduating class of 1998 had definitely been smaller than the class that had entered in late 1991. They had, however, left the school victorious. The Wizarding world was safe again, at least for now, and it should have been a time of celebration for all.

Harry had not felt this way though. After sacrificing so much of himself and having so many friends and classmates get caught in the deadly crossfire, it was all Ron and Hermione could do to convince Harry to attend their graduation day. Harry just could not understand how they could all be celebrating as if the past year had not happened. As if they had not lost so many of their own who should have been a part of that celebration. Even Ron, who had lost not only an eye in the final battle, but a brother during the attacks on the Ministry was happily partying with the rest of the class in the Common Room.

It was during this final celebration of the Gryffindors that Harry had left, and by the time the Leaving Feast was consumed the next day in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, the greatest School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, its entire student body was talking of only one thing. Their hero had disappeared.

It was for this reason that young Harry kept his eyes closed for and extended minute upon arriving outside number twelve Grimmauld Place. The ancient ancestral house of the Black family held a few too many memories for Harry to wish to enter it right away. It was here his beloved godfather Sirius had lived out the last tormented months of his life. It was here that he had attended so many meetings of the Order of the Phoenix during his final year of school as the strongest connection they had to Voldemort after Dumbledore had died. And it was here that Harry was going to stay while he attempted to put his life back together.

Remus seemed to sense his apprehension from next to him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "It will be fine," his old friend smiled, "I know this place has some bad memories, but I think we should be able to face it together, don't you?"

Harry looked up into the eyes of the last remaining Marauder and felt guilty for his self indulgence. If there was anyone who had lost as much as he had in this war, it was Remus. It was this connection with the ageing werewolf, not just the one he had with his father, that meant that Remus had been the only person in the Magical world that Harry had kept in any kind of contact with while he had been away.

He had not taken Hedwig with him when he had left, of course, but that didn't mean she had not found him. An exceptionally intelligent owl, she had tracked him down within days of his disappearance, and he did not have the heart to tell her to leave. So she had stayed, keeping him company when he needed it, and staying with Remus when he had not.

Harry also had the suspicion that it had been Hedwig who had clued Remus in as to where Harry was staying six months ago. He could not figure out how she could have possibly done it, and nor would the old Marauder admit to it, but Harry could think of no other way that Remus could have found his exact location when Harry had only been in the apartment for two weeks himself. It was that very visit however that had led to Harry's return to the Wizarding world, two years after he had so abruptly left it, though Remus swore noone else knew of his visit.

He gave Remus a reassuring smile and moved forwards towards the old house, ignoring his fears for now. It was slightly easier when he remembered that he was the boy who had faced Lord Voldemort six times and won. A few angry Weasleys could not be as bad as that... could they? Well he'd find out soon enough. Opening the door to Grimmauld Place, Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, braced himself for his life's next change.

_A/N: Thanks for reading :)_


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